


And Then You Came Along

by Hidden_Pineapple



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Break Up, Hopeful Ending, I love him so much but he's busy in China so here we are, M/M, Minor Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay, Park Chanyeol is a gentleman, Sweet Park Chanyeol, Yi Xing is a dick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 09:57:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17599115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hidden_Pineapple/pseuds/Hidden_Pineapple
Summary: Baekhyun is having the worst date of his life. Then Chanyeol comes along.





	And Then You Came Along

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [obsessionandstuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsessionandstuff) who did a read-through! This has been sitting on my hard drive for nearly a year without me acutally making any changes, but she gave it the all clear, so here you go. Hope you enjoy ~

Baekhyun didn’t know what was worst; the disappointment at being stood up, or the sympathy from the people around him in the restaurant. He hadn’t even arrived early this time. He’d been fashionably late, and for half a second, he’d worried that he’d missed Yixing. Talking to the staff, however, he’d found out that was not the case.

For the first half hour, he’d entertained himself with his phone; browsing the Internet, chatting with Jongdae, and sending a short text to Yixing to ask if he was far away. For the next half hour, he’d ordered a drink, sipped the glass of wine patiently, and resolutely ignored the few glances he got from the other guests.

For the third half hour, he was starting to get impatient. He sent another text, disliking himself as he did. He didn’t want to be needy, but he was undeniably annoyed with Yixing’s untimeliness. Yixing had a busy schedule, and Baekhyun knew that. But he could have the decency to reply to his texts.

For the fourth half hour, he wasn’t just slowly losing hope, he was spiraling. It wasn’t unknown to him that Yixing could be late, but he was rarely this late. It occurred to him that Yixing might have just forgotten all about him. The thought struck a particularly vulnerable chord in his heart. The lump that had slowly been forming in his throat grew bigger, and his vision was growing blurry.

As the clock passed the two hour mark for his wait, Baekhyun admitted defeat. By this point, the lump in his throat was making it uncomfortable to breathe. He glanced around himself at the people at the nearby tables, and regretted it instantly. Despite his vision swimming from unshed tears, he could still feel the pity in their eyes. His cheeks burned with shame. Despite hating the situation, he felt a distinct reluctance towards getting up and walking out through the restaurant filled with people enjoying themselves. He didn’t think he could take it. He sank down in his chair, covering his face with his hands, sure he would start to cry and embarrass himself even further.

Then a chair scraped, too close to be any other table than his. For the briefest second, Baekhyun thought Yixing had actually shown up. But when he removed his hands, he saw an unfamiliar face across the table.

“Hi dear, I’m so sorry I’m late,” the man said, scraping even more with the chair as he scooted closer to the table. “Traffic was horrible.”

Baekhyun stared at the man, baffled. “Wha-“

The man leaned forwards, whispering. “Just go with it. You look like you could use a dinner partner. I’m Chanyeol, by the way.”

“Baekhyun,” he replied automatically. He was still trying to determine what exactly was going on. “Why –”

Chanyeol sat back, leafing through the menu he’d picked up. “Let’s just enjoy dinner now that I’m here, hm?”

Baekhyun stared at him for another few seconds, then decided to just do as he suggested. “Yes. Of course.” He picked up his own menu, which he knew back to front by now, and tried to decide what he wanted to eat. A moment later, he put it back down. “Wait, did you just happen to come here alone, or did you…” he trailed off, unsure what to say next.

“Oh no, I’m here with some friends, but I’m the fifth wheel. Which is only marginally better than being the third wheel. I’ve been watching you for the last 5 minutes trying to convince myself I was having a good time, but then I realized I wasn’t. I was a little nervous you’d turn me away, though,” he said with a small chuckle.

Baekhyun frowned. He didn’t want to be a charity case, but honestly it sounded like Chanyeol had used Baekhyun as an excuse to escape, rather than coming over because he felt sorry for him. Baekhyun rather preferred it like that.

“You know what you want?” Chanyeol gestured at the menu.

“No,” Baekhyun replied honestly. He didn’t want to admit it, but he could still feel the lump in his throat.

“I’ll order for the both of us, then.” He waved the waiter over, placing both their orders, and asking for Baekhyun’s wine glass to be refilled. “My treat,” Chanyeol added when Baekhyun started to protest. “It’s the least I can do when I’m this late,” he added a little louder, and winked.

Baekhyun didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He was still leaning towards crying, unfortunately. “Tell me a little about yourself,” he said, hoping to distract himself enough to not think about the disappointment that had built itself up over the past two hours.

“Well, my name’s Chanyeol, as you know. Park Chanyeol, actually. I’m very tall. Blood type A. I like to write music. I play in a band. I had laser surgery for my bad eyesight. I’m a hopeless romantic. I cry a lot. I can be pretty annoying, according to my friends, because I won’t stop drumming with my fingers. I love dogs, but I’m allergic to them.”

Baekhyun listened to Chanyeol’s deep voice, staying uncharacteristically quiet. He enjoyed the normalness of it, of the man across from him speaking to him, watching him, maintaining eye-contact with him. He felt seen in a way he hadn’t in months. Slowly, the lump in his throat shrunk down until there was nothing left.

He studied Chanyeol’s face, taking in the dark brown eyes, the straight brows, and the ears sticking out. His hands moved animatedly as he spoke, and every once and again, he’d glance out into the air while trying to decide how to formulate what he would say next. Chanyeol told Baekhyun about where he was from, his family, and his job. Baekhyun barely heard any of it, though, trying and failing to concentrate on the words rather than the mouth moving to form them. He felt guilty for not paying attention to what Chanyeol was saying, but even so, he felt calm and serene. The urge to cry had completely disappeared.

“So, what about you? I know next to nothing,” Chanyeol smiled, and Baekhyun blinked, pulled out of his tranquility.

“Oh, me –” Baekhyun started, but just as he spoke, a waiter appeared, setting down plates in front of them. Chanyeol took a moment to unfold his napkin and lay it down on his lap, before grabbing his cutlery and cutting into his steak. Baekhyun glanced down at his own plate, unsure if the knot in his stomach was from the seafood in front of him, or from something else. He took a bite, and then another, and just as he concluded the food wasn’t the cause, Chanyeol spoke again.

“So, what kind of music do you listen to?”

Baekhyun waited until he’d swallowed his bite before replying. “A little bit of everything, but right now it’s mostly pop. How come?”

“No reason, just really interested in music, so I kind of wanted to know.”

Baekhyun nodded, realizing he was a little distracted. The knot in his stomach had grown to queasiness, and he still couldn’t decide why he was feeling that way.

“How old are you, by the way? I don’t know whether to call you hyung or not,” Chanyeol said, smiling slightly.

As Chanyeol spoke, Baekhyun could feel his condition rapidly deteriorating. He was nauseous to the point where he was a little worried about opening his mouth, out of fear of throwing up. “Excuse me,” he managed to force out, pushing his chair back and getting up. “Bathroom,” he choked out, before leaving with hurried steps.

When he entered the brightly illuminated restrooms, he could see his own pale face staring back at him from the mirror over the sink. He swallowed the bile that had risen to the back of his throat, stepped into one of the stalls, and sat down on the toilet lid. He held his head in his hands, trying to will the waves of nausea away. He groaned, and leaned his face against the cool wall, thinking at the back of his head about how extremely unsanitary that probably was. It did nothing to help his nausea.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Yixing. For a moment he thought maybe he was feeling guilty about essentially having a date with another person, but that wasn’t it. Yixing had been his boyfriend for well over a year, and throughout that time, Baekhyun had spent evenings with other people fairly regularly. No, it was something else, something that he knew with his heart had been gnawing at the back of his mind for a long time.

Baekhyun realized he needed to go home. He was really not looking forward to turning down Chanyeol, who had been kind enough to invest time in cheering him up, even if it was for selfish reasons – regardless of that, he had put Baekhyun out of his misery. But even so, it wouldn’t do either of them any good if Baekhyun puked into the food.

Returning to the restaurant, Baekhyun could hear trouble long before he could see it. When he finally got to his table, he found the reason. Yixing had shown up after all, a fashionably two and a half hours late.

“Don’t give me that kind of bullshit excuse, tell me why exactly you are having a candle-lit dinner with my boyfriend,” Yixing said, voice a lot louder than necessary.

Chanyeol was standing up, both of his hands up in a disarming gesture, and the napkin that had previously been in his lap rested in his half-eaten food. “I already told you, we were just eating, nothing more.”

“Yixing,” Baekhyun said, making both of them turn towards him.

“There you are,” Yixing said, smiling brightly. “I was starting to worry you’d been kidnapped.”

Baekhyun frowned. Shouldn’t he be the one to ask that?

“I think that’s my cue to leave. It was nice meeting you,” Chanyeol said to Baekhyun, nodding slightly at him. Baekhyun couldn’t help but notice the shade of pink in his cheeks as well as on his ears. “Have a nice dinner,” he aimed at Yixing, who was glaring daggers at him.

When Chanyeol was gone, Yixing pulled out Baekhyun’s chair for him. “Let’s eat,” he said warmly.

Baekhyun frowned, staring between the direction Chanyeol had disappeared in and Yixing standing behind his chair. “I’m not hungry anymore,” he replied.

Yixing scoffed. “Well, some of us just got off work, and could really use a meal.”

“You do realize you’re more than two hours late, right?”

“Well, you know my schedule,” Yixing replied, brushing off Baekhyun’s remark with a wave of his hand.

“You know what, I’ve had it up to here with your excuses,” Baekhyun said, putting his hand on eye-level, and unable to keep his voice from raising slightly. “During those two hours, did it ever occur to you to send me a text?” He waited a moment for Yixing’s reply, but there was none.

At last, he voiced the question that he realized he’d been wondering about for some time. “Do you even care?”

“What are you talking about? Of course I care,” Yixing replied, sounding indignant.

But it didn’t matter. Baekhyun wasn’t nauseous anymore. He didn’t even care that everyone around them were staring openly at their exchange. Least of all he cared about Yixing’s words, because he could see plainly on his face that the answer was ‘no’. Yixing didn’t care, and he might even never have. For everything Baekhyun had suffered over the past few months, after the honeymoon phase of his crush had worn off, he only had four more words. “I wanna break up.”

Yixing stared at him, looking dumbstruck, as Baekhyun felt his heart hammering in his chest from what he’d just done. From everything in his life he’d just uprooted, pissed on, then lit on fire.

“OK,” Yixing replied, face back to an indifferent mask.

“OK?” Baekhyun repeated, somehow both incredulous and not at all surprised at the same time. “I guess this was over a long time ago if that’s all you have to say.”

Yixing shrugged, the most careless thing he could have done beyond not responding at all.

Baekhyun closed his eyes, for a moment feeling the sting of regret, but then deciding that it would serve him no good to think about how much time he’d wasted on a one-sided relationship. Instead he picked up his jacket from where it hung on his chair, and ran out the door, hoping he wasn’t too late.

  
  


He found Chanyeol sitting on the steps.

Baekhyun sat down next to him.

“You’ve got a really shitty boyfriend,” Chanyeol commented.

“Not my boyfriend anymore,” Baekhyun replied. “Sorry about not mentioning that earlier, by the way. Can’t have been nice to get blindsided by that.”

“It’s okay. Didn’t think he’d show up after so long,” Chanyeol replied.

“Me neither,” Baekhyun stated, leaning back on his hands, and staring up at the night sky.

Just as he said it, the door to the restaurant opened again, and Yixing stepped out. “You forgot to pay the bill when you left,” he said to Baekhyun.

“That’s on me,” Chanyeol answered. “I told him it was my treat, then forgot all about it. I’ll go fix it.”

Yixing waited until Chanyeol was on his feet before replying. “Don’t bother, I already took care of it. Have a nice life, Baekhyun.”

They watched him walk away in silence. When he was gone, Chanyeol spoke up. “I hope you don’t live with that guy.”

“Oh no, he’d never let me get that close. I feel pretty stupid now for not seeing the signs earlier.”

“Signs of what?” Chanyeol turned his head to glance at him.

Baekhyun sighed. “The signs of a very unhealthy relationship.”

They sat in silence for another few minutes, Chanyeol staring out into nothing, eyes following the occasional car that passed by, and Baekhyun thinking about how extremely little his life that would change without Yixing. “I should probably go home,” he said when he felt like too many of the restaurant’s guests had had to step around them to get down the stairs.

“Wait,” Chanyeol called as Baekhyun got up. “I know this is a little sudden, with you having just broken up with your boyfriend, but could I have your number?”

Baekhyun stared at him.

“Know what, never mind, it’s stupid. Too soon,” he said, shaking his head.

Baekhyun couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in his throat. For the first time in months, he felt like a heavy burden had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt free. “Of course you can have my number. You owe me a date.”

“What?” Chanyeol said, ears turning pink again. “How do I owe you a date?”

“You said it was your treat, and then you never paid!” Baekhyun was still laughing, but not because of their conversation. He was laughing at the realization that he could do whatever the hell he wanted. “Here, let me type,” Baekhyun said, holding his hand out.

Chanyeol handed over his phone, fingers brushing, and watched Baekhyun type in his number.

“You’re really cute, you know that?” Baekhyun said as he handed it back.

Chanyeol blinked at him with big eyes, ears turning even redder than before.

Baekhyun couldn’t help but laugh again, still shocked there wasn’t even a trace of sadness in his heart. There was only the stirring sensation of excitement, of opportunity and possibility. “Call me in a few weeks. Then we’ll figure out which one of us is the hyung,” Baekhyun said as he started walking away, stepping backwards into the night.

Chanyeol looked at him dumbfoundedly for a moment, then smiled and shook his head. “I’m starting to think it’s you,” he added just as Baekhyun turned around.

“We’ll see,” Baekhyun threw over his shoulder. “We’ll see.” 


End file.
